Churp Churp

Subscribe To

Gadget

Monday, November 16, 2015

The
heart of Disney-Pixar's new family adventure “The Good Dinosaur”
is the friendship that develops between Arlo and Spot—two
characters who begin the story at odds. They don’t share a language
and—at least at first—have little reason to come together at all.
But thanks to a life-changing journey, Arlo and Spot find common
ground and a relationship that will change them both forever.

The
last to hatch among his siblings, 11-year-old ARLO has yet to make
his mark on his family’s farm. Though he is eager to help out with
chores, this sheltered Apatosaurus just can’t seem to get past his
fear of everything. “Arlo is young and vulnerable,” says
character art director Matt Nolte. “He’s so unsure of himself and
we wanted to capture that in his look. He’s smaller and thinner
than his siblings.”

“We
went through a lot of different voices,” Sohn says. “Arlo is at a
crossroads—evolving from weak and innocent to a strong, more mature
young adult. Everyone we heard sounded too young or too old. Raymond
Ochoa has a quality to his voice that’s sincere and really
appealing with that gravelly texture. He’s a great performer who
was willing to be vulnerable for the more emotional scenes.”

Ochoa,
a lifelong fan of Pixar movies, liked taking the journey with Arlo.
“To Arlo, the wilderness was a place to fear,” says Ochoa. “Bad
things happen there. But the wilderness is actually where he
transitions from being a little boy to becoming that mature, brave
dinosaur he always wanted to be.”

SPOT
is a wild, tough and tenacious human boy who has lived alone in the
wilderness for much of his life. He speaks in only grunts and growls,
but his strengths are clear: he’s fearless and confident. “This
is very much a wilderness movie,” says screenwriter Meg LeFauve.
“Spot is the wild animal who shows up to help the boy—in this
case, Arlo—in need. Spot is of this place. He is a survivor.”

“It’s
really fun to push Spot’s canine quality,” says Sohn. “We want
it to be clear that he thinks and reacts like an animal in the
beginning, but there’s a boy deep, deep down.”

But
pairing this human with a dinosaur proved difficult. “Framing Arlo
and all of the dinosaurs was a huge challenge due to their size,”
says director of photography-camera Mahyar Abousaeedi. “But when
something much smaller—like Spot—appeared in the same shot, that
complicated our camera strategy. Composing Spot small in frame was
important. We wanted to remind the audience that this is a
boy-and-his-dog story—and that Spot is the dog. Composing Spot
small in frame for most of the movie made for a more powerful
connection when the pair begins to bond and we pushed into Spot for a
close-up.”

A
young actor named Jack Bright provides the voice of Spot. But since
Spot doesn’t speak, the role called for equal parts creativity and
enthusiasm. “Jack is incredible,” says Ream. “And Peter [Sohn]
is such a natural with children—he can explain what he needs in a
way that makes it easy to understand. He and Jack really made a
really great team.”

Disney•Pixar’s
"The Good Dinosaur" asks the question: What if the asteroid
that forever changed life on Earth missed the planet completely and
giant dinosaurs never became extinct? Pixar Animation Studios takes
you on an epic journey into the world of dinosaurs where an
Apatosaurus named Arlo makes an unlikely human friend.

Opening
across the Philippines on Nov. 25, “The Good Dinosaur” is
distributed by Walt Disney Studios through Columbia Pictures. Follow
the official social media accounts of Disney in the Philippines,
namely, (FB) WaltDisneyStudiosPH, (Twitter) @disneystudiosph and
(Instagram) @waltdisneystudiosph and use the hashtag#GoodDinoPH.